Partners and Tools

I was interviewed for this article in Channel pro Magazine. For some reason, they wanted me to be on the cover!

"Cloud offerings are now part of just about any channel partner’s bag
of tricks, and for good reason. Cloud reduces up-front costs for
customers, shifting the burden of maintaining the IT infrastructure to
the cloud provider. For Microsoft partners, Office 365 is the cloud.

In the two-plus years since the debut of Office 365, channel partners
that got in at the beginning have learned a lot about how to sell the
cloud-based suite to small and midsize businesses. So without further
ado, here are their 15 top tips: "

Later in the process, another workshop is presented called the Solution Alignment Workshop (SAW). This two day workshop uses a single 109 slide deck and is a more detailed presentation intended to identify and perhaps resolve specific issues related to Office 365 for the company. Are all the SMTP gateways identified? Is the customer clear on security policy? Do they know that DAV is unavailable? Are they OK that Outlook Web App cannot be customized?

These decks, used extensively by Microsoft, have not been available outside of Microsoft until very recently. Partners that sell Office 365 can now download the decks at Quickstartonlineservices.com.

The decks include some detailed "maps" about the onboarding process for larger companies, complete presentations on Office 365 security, and many other useful details. Partners will want to scrub some of the details to present your own services as more face forward than Microsoft's, but IMO, these are very important resources that all partners should at reference and potentially use. At the very least, it's a great education about the services.

Microsoft has created a new tech center for Office 365 that aggregates training, resources, and other details. This is a serioulsy needed resource that includes links to virtual labs, papers, and other details on topics related to Office 365 deployment including single sign on.

The next version of the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit—version 6.0— is now available for free download.

The Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 6.0 includes assessment capabilities to evaluate workloads for both public and private cloud platforms. With MAP 6.0, you now have the ability to identify workloads and estimate the infrastructure size and resources needed for both Windows Azure and Hyper-V Fast Track. Also new to MAP 6.0 is an Office 365 client assessment, enhanced VMware inventory, and Oracle Schema discovery and reporting. Expanded assessment and discovery capabilities from MAP help you simplify planning for your next migration project. Plan what's next with MAP.